Saturday, April 04, 2009

If You Give a Tinkerer Some Scrap Wood

Have you ever read, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"? If not, then you are probably single and/or don't have children or nieces and nephews. I think that the point of the story is to get kids to empathise with their parents and to stop procrastinating when their parents ask them to do something. It tells the story of a mouse wanting a glass of milk with the cookie that is just given to him. This "reminds him" that he needs to brush his teeth, which reminds him of something else and so on and so forth until the story gets back to him wanting a cookie. Judging by the way my daughter acts, most kids don't get the point of the story at all. Then again, maybe it's my own example that's causing her "procrastination". I am starting to think that most of my projects around the house are exactly like this story. For some reason or another, they seem to go on and on.

If you give a tinkerer some scrap wood, he is likely to want to build something. Looking around the yard, he thinks a trellis is a good idea. He builds the trellis and upon remembering that he has a symmetrical house, he decides to build another trellis to match it.
Thinking that the bare wood doesn't looks so great and trying to find a way to cover his shitty craftsmenship, he decides to paint the trellises.So, he runs to the hardware store and buys some paint to match the trim color of his storm windows. He eventually runs out of paint and has to go back to the hardware store for more. Thinking he's done a pretty good job, he props them up against the front columns to see how they look. While looking at it, he realizes what a nice day it is so he decides to move some plants around (he can't help but continually move plants around because he's just wired that way). He moves some hollyhocks from the back yard to the front. Upon closer inspection, he realizes that the right trellis covers up his house number.So, he starts planning on making a new house number plaque for the Tiny Bungalow that will hang above the trellis.

Oh, by the way, the trellises have yet to be permanently installed.

4 comments:

Jennifer said...

:) Sounds like MY adventures. Except... most of that happens in my mind before getting started, so I never get started!

Humphrey House said...

And you've just inspired Jason ... :)

Chris said...

I'll send a note to Jay. I am busy now but if he is still tinkering the last weekend in May, I'd gladly come over and help him out for a couple hours.

Sharon Kwilter said...

Thanks for the inspiration! I've got some scrap wood I'm just itching to put together into a trellis now.